How do you feel about censorship?

[BrandonMcAuslan]

So manhunt 2 is Banned in the United Kingdom (and Australia too if I'm not mistaken).
I was wondering how does everybody feel about censorship in general?
Movies - Games - Books etc.
Is it a good thing - or a bad thing?

Where do we draw the line?


Britains particularly bad for this. If you are over 18 I believe you should have the right to decide for yourself. In relation to Manhunt what gets me annoyed is that you have a whole lot of motherly types complaining to the media that its harming children... ITS RATED 18 FOR A REASON. You wouldn't give a kid explicit porn, or a particularly gruesome/scary film would you? Then why give them an 18 rated explicit game. - Just my thoughts. Anyone else?

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[m0nsta]

Games
The first violent game I ever had was Goldeneye when I was 9. Since then I have been playing a number of games like Counter-Strike/Unreal Tournament etc. I still play Battlefield 2 to date.

Movies
I remember the first film/movie that scared the shit out of me was Alien which I watched when I was.. 8 or 9. I remember coming down stairs at around 12am because the sound was really high on the TV and my mum fast asleep watching Alien. Since then from the ages of 12- now my parents have often given me 15/18's DVD/Videos for my birthday and Xmas.

I guess my point is that a large majority of my life has been exposed to video/film violence and I can honestly say that I am not a violent individual. I was never in any "serious" fights at school, just the old pushing from time to time :P, so really I have no commited any "violent" acts, apart from shooting my "friend" 5x in the head when we were paintballing

Overal; I feel that in no way that violence on the TV/Computer affects children and therefore games/films should not really be cencored to an extent e.g. Manhunt. Unless the kid is psychotic or summin

[Beki_J]

I wrote a 3000 word essay on video game violence for my media coursework lol I mentioned manhunt but it was predominantly Grand Theft Auto and I'm still undecided on it!

When they were talking about it on BBC news I think I agree with the woman, it should be banned because even tho it is rated 18 it's a GAME. Not all parents know about game ratings and such and the word video game doesn't really raise the issue in parents minds that it might be bad for them because when they grew up on games like Pong and Space Invaders, they obviously know games have changed but not to the extent Rockstar is changing them O_O.

I know parents who don't care about showing their kids 18 rated movies so why should they care its a game? Violent games are actually WORSE than movies IMO because you're involved in it and actually doing it, ok so with the PS3 and 360 it's not a PHYSICAL involvement but you still have a connection. There was a kid who played violent games all day and became desensitised to the implications of what was actually happening on the screen that he went and stabbed another kid who was bullying him and didn't actually realise what he'd done. I don't think they can actually make non-violent kids violent, there has to be something already wrong with them but surely stabbing people on a screen with the wii remote isn't going to help lol.

BTW, the woman on BBC said that this is only the second time Britain has refused to rate a game based on it's content.

[BrandonMcAuslan]

Those are good points Beki,
But I personally believe that if a game is rated at 18 - and an adult is unaware of its content - he or she should still be held responsible for providing a child with that game. In the eyes of the law ignorance is not an excuse for any crime. So instead of justifying a ban for a game on the basis that children may play it - we should be simply be enforcing the same rules that apply to 18 rated movies. (The games industry should probably be trying harder to make parents aware that certain games should not be played by children - but would that eat into profits..?)

Also parents do know about ratings. They've been dealing with videos/movies all their life - the ratings for computer games are the same thing.

Although it can be said that a person is actually making the descisions in a computer game - I think films are still far more realistically graphic, and emotionally engaging/involving than games. Any GTA is cartoonish in appearance. Even gears of war is disernable as a game despite its incredible visuals. - I've never cried at a game, but I have at a film (well almost - guys don't cry at movies.)


Anyway I would say that movies are far more emotionally involving than games. They contain accurate realistic representations of human beings/people. And for that reason we shouldn't be proclaiming "mature audience" games as the route of serious problems with children/minors in our society. If thats the case mature movies/books/comics need to go too...

There are a lot of factors that can cause a person to do horrible things; Its infinately complicated why people behave the way they do. But I don't believe that these games are a major factor in influencing this type of behaviour.

Pyschotic types are that way for a whole bunch of reasons - if games turned people into loonies there would be a lot more loonies out there.
(just my opinion)

[DBloke]

It sucks
Japans got the worse
Damn it Why are they in porn if they dont want there parts to be seen

[Frogger]

I actually like it.

I really think that banning is the only way to stop naive parents from buying people games. My cousin who lives next door to me (hoorah) goes to his dad's house every weekend, or something and he gets a lot of pirated films. For his birthday, he came back with Grand Theft Auto for PSP, he adds his own "I'm so hardcore" sound effects too. He usually comes back with films waaaay out of his league, he's 10. You do not give a ten year old Resevoir Dogs. In all, it's gave him a violent nature and turned him into much more of an idiot, he play fights wrestling with my other 5 year old cousin, but he beats the crap out of him and doesn't realise what he's doing.

As for films, yeah, they can leak their way into people easily. There's lots of people who sneak into movies, I see them do it frequently. However, when you go to the cinema you do get asked for ID a lot "Are you 15 girls?"
"I'll go one better, I'm actually 16." I've been asked for ID to get into a 12 once, now, that may be just being overly cautious or because I don't wear makeup and have brilliantly captured my youth. :P

There were kids who play Manhunt in the street, when it was big many years ago they used to be running everywhere, like Parkour, they'd even be on top of my kitchen (Yeah, you can do that). They have no idea what they're doing, it doesn't benefit anyone. Agh. The police eventually stopped this by having extra patrols at night just to stop little influenced children.

As for most videogames, I think they're okay if you stick to the rating, but there's always going to be people who go against this.

[DBloke]

Censers on porn - NO
On games - NO
On films - Yes lets make sure that shite isnt on at the filcks
Music - Anything to get crap off the airwaves
On anime - NONONONONONO but I dont care I just get the uncut stuff

[Napalmbrain]

As a grown adult I feel I should be allowed to watch, play and listen to anything I want. If I have kids then I'm quite capable of deciding what is suitable for them. No media should be banned solely because of sexual or violent content because there is no justification for it- it's already illegal for shops to sell "adult" content to under 18s, and anyone older than 18 should be assumed mature enough to be able to handle it.

As for games influencing behaviour, I can't say I know. But consider this- millions of people have played GTA, but it certainly hasn't driven millions of people to murder. I'll bet that most people who claim to have been influenced to commit a crime by video games are already mentally unstable, or are just looking for some way to shift the blame. And unfortunately politicians buy the excuse since most of them have never played a video game in their life.

[coleman]

When all is said and done, I feel that it comes down to the parents and how they deal with the situation.

A lot of parents are too caught up in their own lives to know what's going on in their kids. A good example is the Columbine kids making bombs in their basement. If I had a teenaged son in the basement all the time, I sure as hell would like to know what he was doing in there.

The same goes for video games, and all media. All a parent has to do is say no to their kid and not buy them the game. But I feel that it should still be on the shelves for the more mature audience to buy.

I just don't see how a game can be censored because of the violence, yet a movie like Hostel II can be shown all over the place with an R rating.

[Star Striker]

My new sig should say it all......